Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge Details and Hands-On

Last Friday afternoon, I had the privilege to attend a talk regarding Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge with Billy Foster from developers Tru Blu and special guest Percy Montgomey at the extraordinary Melrose Arch Hotel, courtesy of Megarom. At the talk, I was able to get the low down on some of the features this long awaited rugby game will give gamers when it releases this year. Will it be the FIFA of Rugby games? Probably not, but it could potentially evolve into something similar.

One of the first things that was made abundantly clear was the fact that Rugby Challenge is not a Rugby World Cup game, leaning more to the stance of what the FIFA series has done for football games. Some official trophies and tournaments will be featured, such as the Tri-Nations, Quad Nations Euro Club Championship and more. Some tournaments will make an appearance, though not with the fully licensed name, such as the Super 15 being renamed to Rugby 15. Though, that does not mean you cannot recreate the Rugby World Cup, or any other tournament for that matter, with the ability to create custom tournaments and edit teams so that they closely represent their real life counterparts. You are able to take full control and create a tournament suited to any of your needs, including how many teams will participate, the orders of elimination and more.

Stadiums wise, there will be 31 on show for you to play around in, and more importantly the 14 stadiums from the World Cup will also make an appearance. In the game, Australia and New Zealand will be fully licensed, meaning that stadiums from either nation will have the correct name and be fully recreated. As for other stadiums, such as the ones locally, they will take on the name of the city they are situated in, but will still be realistically recreated and represented. For example, Newlands in Cape Town will simply be called Cape Town Stadium. As for the unlicensed teams, this will follow the same rule, with teams being named after the city they represent. Only Australian and New Zealand teams are fully licensed and accurately represented, which is a bit sad but understandable considering this could be the first game in a long spanning series.

Player customisation is a big part of Rugby Challenge, and it truly does allow those creative gamers to flex their prowess and recreate anyone to use in their team. From the standard height and weight options, to the iconic cauliflower ears and broken noses, no option is overlooked in the character creator. You will then also be able to customise player attributes, and here is where I spotted a problem. With the attributes, there seems to be no way of limiting or balancing the amount of points you are allowed to allocate. Billy Foster also made no indication of whether or not this was only because this was an unfinished version of the game, or an actual feature. The fact that he stated that you are able to max out any character if you want seems to make me believe that attribute points will not be limited, allowing any player to create a near perfect performing team.

Now onto actual gameplay. Before heading out onto the field and braving the famous Haka, it would be advisable to hit up the tutorials section, because it has been quite a while since there was last a Rugby game, and you could be quite rusty. There are 4 tiers that make up the tutorials, namely Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional. These tutorials will comprise some challenges and goals that will help you hone your abilities, ranging from simple passes to chip kicks. On top of that, there will also be a Rules video, that will explain the rules and regulations to newcomers to the world of Rugby, which broadens the titles appeal. The last type of practice mode is a Run Around mode, which is basically the same as the arena mode in FIFA. In this virtual playground, you are able to take part in tutorial challenges, practice specific moves or just mess around. You will also be able to do this while the game loads, so that you are never forced to just sit and wait.

From there you can head into the Rugby Challenge’s career mode, which will take your selected team through 13 seasons of international and club rugby. Throughout the 13 seasons you will also have to deal with player injuries, suspensions and various tournaments and matches that will head your way. Apart from that, there is your regular exhibition modes which can be played single-player, up to 2v2 split-screen and 4v4 online multiplayer. Throughout all these modes you will earn Rugby Dollars, which act as a sort of in-game currency that can be used to purchase behind-the-scenes videos, art, dream teams and more.

Graphically, I could not pass on much judgement based on what we saw. The projector distorted the image a bit, and the game shown was not the final version so some touch ups could still be made. As for what I saw, the animations were a bit distressing, with players sometimes making odd motions when passing and arms not lining up to what should seem like a normal motion. Another thing that caught my attention, though rather small, was the way players never seemed to really be holding the ball. They always seemed to be holding around the ball, though I suspect this will be fixed before launch. Other than that, the game seems to play fairly well, with the game flowing seamlessly and mauling and rucks looking realistic. The controls seem easy to pick up and adapt to, and are very responsive. One thing I did notice was that turnovers occurred very easily, though that could just be dependent on who you playing with.

To wrap up, Rugby Challenge is doing exactly what many rugby fans have been asking for: Delivering a good and entertaining rugby game. While it is a long way from reaching the pedigree that FIFA has achieved for the football world, a good first game could do wonders for this series. A few little things need some attention before release, but I am certain rugby fans will eat this game up. And who knows, good sales could mean a sequel, and from there we could see annual rugby games, with even more licensing. No release date yet, but I wouldn’t expect a long wait.